[6] Moss began her career at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and became a full professor there in 2012, four years after receiving her PhD from Yale.
"[10] She was the recipient of The John Templeton Award of Theological Promise in 2011, which cited her 2010 OUP book, The Other Christs: Imitating Jesus in Ancient Christian Ideologies of Martyrdom.
[14] In a review published in 2013 focusing on her first two books, Edinburgh classicist Lucy Grig wrote that "Candida Moss has swiftly established herself as one of the most interesting and original scholars working on early Christian martyrdom.
Moss's most recent work has focussed on Slavery in Ancient Rome and the ways in which enslaved secretaries, scribes, readers, and copyists contributed to the writing of the New Testament and the dissemination of early Christianity.
"[18] The Spectator wrote that Moss's "massive achievement is to shift the paradigm and tell the early Christian story (as far as is possible) from the perspective of the enslaved.
"[21] It added that "No one can possibly doubt, after reading this vigorous and provocative book, that the whole texture of Christian thought would have looked very different without them."
The book was distinctive as the first work of ancient history written for the general public to be published with a companion website containing thousands of additional endnotes and references.
[23] In his 2024 endorsement for God's Ghostwriters, New York Times bestselling-author Reza Aslan described Moss as "the most compelling voice in Biblical Scholarship" [24] On his blog Variant Readings, Manuscript expert Brent Nongbri described it as "probably the most important book in New Testament studies written in the last half century.
[34] In January 2015, Moss and her coauthor Joel Baden were the first to reveal the Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal to the public when they wrote about the company's import of illicitly obtained cuneiform tablets for the Daily Beast.
[37] She was an academic consultant to the television series The Bible,[38] and an on-air expert and host for National Geographic Explorer,[39] as well as for the History, Travel,[40] and Smithsonian[41] Channels.
[56] Moss's brother-in-law is Barrett Foa, a singer, dancer, and actor who portrayed Eric Beale on the military police procedural NCIS: Los Angeles.